Depressing Study Reveals the Age Men Find Women Most Attractive

We often find it entertaining to see what men find appealing—not because we’d ever change ourselves to fit that preferences (hell no!), but just because we’re curious about the ins and outs of the strange and often unexplainable male psyche. Today, however, that hit a new low—and we kind of wish we didn’t know what we do now. Christian Rudder, president and co-founder of a little site called OKCupid, wrote a story for Jezebel detailing the ages men and women find each other most attractive. Keep scrolling to see the results.

For women, data seems to indicate that women in their early 20s prefer men just a year or two older than their own age—this holds true for women in their 30s and 40s, too, only leveling down a bit at women in their 50s, who find 46-year-olds most attractive. Still, though—all in all, a somewhat normal set of data.

Now, allow us to present the other side of the equation: the age men find women most attractive. According to Rudder’s data, which is gathered from his site’s millions of users, men in their 20s prefer women in their early 20s. Okay—not that weird. As it turns out, men in their 30s find women who are age 20 the most attractive. Not early 20s—straight-up age 20. As in, the first year after you stop being a teenager. It gets even better—men in their 40s up to age 50 all prefer women in their early 20s too.

Um. What?

Rudder wrapped it all succinctly: “Younger is better, and youngest is best of all.”

We’re officially depressed (and creeped out). Excuse us while we purge this information from our minds and go back to reading our copy of Lean In. You can head over to Jezebel to read the whole story as well as ogle some eye-opening data graphs.

What do you think—is this data accurate? Totally messed up? How are you feeling about these findings? Tell us below!